


Haunted

by Aaronlisa



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: F/M, Imprinting, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 13:12:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14020989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: She can’t remember him but she’s scarred by him.





	Haunted

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Smallfandomfest back in January 2011 for the prompt of Alpha/Echo and "memories fade but the scars still linger." Set during the first season.

He never uses his wickedly sharp blade on her perfect skin but he leaves her scarred nonetheless. Scars that are beneath the surface, that even Topher’s genius can’t erase when he puts her in his chair and manages to erase the memories and the terror of Alpha’s rampage, including being surrounded by dolls who cried blood red tears and wouldn’t wake up after Alpha touched them. Topher’s technology can make her whole and new, free of the taint of the memories, but it can’t erase the scars on her soul from Alpha’s attack. And no one in the dollhouse from the top to the bottom (not Topher, or Adelle in her ivory tower, or Dominic, the shadowy leaders in Tucson) thinks about the fragility of the human soul. 

Alpha’s marks mar her soul but not her pristine body. His attack to make her number one mar all of them, not just her, yet all they can see, all they can focus on, are the scars that mar Whiskey’s face. And no matter how many times Echo sits in Topher’s chair, the wipes never go deep enough to erase those scars. 

* * *

She is evolving. All of the signs are there but no one wants to listen to him. His reports about Echo, which he diligently writes and then sends out in triplicate (one to Adelle, one to Head Office, and then one to the NSA) are routinely ignored. Dominic doesn’t even have the black mark of being a former doll to blemish his record, to ensure that his words would be ignored. Somehow Caroline Farrell even as Echo manages to interest everyone. Her evolution is considered praiseworthy even when Alpha had started this way. Every day Dominic looks at the data that gives him the same result: another Alpha in the making. Or even worse a playmate for Alpha. Dominic’s not sure which is the worse scenario. 

He watches her but still he doesn’t see how damaged she is. He’s too intent on bringing her down, on securing a pod up in the Attic to watch how she was affected by Alpha’s attack.

* * *

Claire knows that as a doctor she is supposed to view all of her patients objectively. It should be easy because they’re all blank slates with no annoying or obnoxious personalities to irritate her. (The exception to the rule is the dollhouse staff that comes to her for treatment on occasion but her primary focus are the dolls.) Yet Claire finds that she can’t stomach Echo at all. Vaguely remembered images flash through her mind when she treats Echo. They’re not quite memories and she can’t even interpret those images, the fact that Alpha had painted the dollhouse crimson red with blood because of her is more than enough for Claire. 

She wishes that she were less honest, less intent on protecting the actives, all of them, so that she could do what needs to be done to assist Dominic in putting Echo up in the Attic. Sooner than later, Claire knows that one of two things are bound to happen. Either Echo will evolve just like Alpha did (and maybe she won’t be content with just leaving Claire’s face a scarred jigsaw puzzle) or Alpha will come back to rescue or save or free Echo from the grasp of the dollhouse. Both are inevitable and Claire knows that she won’t be allowed to live without more scares, if she’s even allowed to live. 

* * *

Alpha bides his time; playing his clever little games with Adelle, Ballard and Rossum, all the while ensure that Echo will evolve. It’s no longer about her being her best; instead it is about making her the best, a goddess to his god, the omega to his alpha. 

Although he’s willing to keep to the shadows for as long as it takes, Alpha hates how it feels when someone else can easily hire her and gets to kiss her and touch her. The jealousy of it all consumes him. His hand itches for a scalpel, a knife, anything sharp will do. He hates it more when it’s someone that he’s sent to her in order for her to continue evolving. Every time it scars him and he wants to hold onto the memory of her innocence, the kiss that they shared, the way she had looked up at him in the showers with trust shining in her eyes while he hacked the others to pieces. 

* * *

As Echo watches the doctor, she knows that Dr. Saunders is broken. What she also knows is that they are all broken, even the others like Dr. Saunders. Only Dr. Saunders shows the scars that they all bear. Echo can’t remember things clearly but there are things that haunt her. Vague shadows that skitter across her mind; things like the water turning red when she was in the shower and other dolls that don’t wake up no matter how hard she tries to wake them. She can even remember Dr Saunders being attacked, her screams ringing in Echo’s ears, as Echo is powerless to stop things. Treatments dull the edges of the memories but she carries the weight of those memories as scars on the inside of her psyche just as Dr. Saunders carries them on her face for everyone to see. 

The closest that Echo comes to remember is at night in the pods when she can hear Sierra’s soft cries and sleep is just a heartbeat away. Echo remembers a man, a face that remains hazy but the eyes are piercing as if he can see right through her body to her soul, his hand is deadly sharp but she knows that she alone is safe around him. He’ll never harm her no matter what it seems like to her or anyone else. His kiss is gentle but she’s not sure if she likes how it makes her feel on the inside. 

Before everything can become clear to her, the memory fades and she falls asleep. In the morning, she won’t remember a thing. Yet the scars that Alpha created are still there, they linger on her soul even when the memories are robbed from her, 

((END))


End file.
